Xenophon wrote:I can't agree with this opinion of the formation's efficacy.....Alexander was actually reviving the old Persian infantry formation as used by Darius I and Xerxes - in Xerxes time the infantry fought up to ten deep with a 'sparabara'/shieldbearer armed with large rectangular wicker shield and six foot spear as the front rank or two, backed by shieldless archers.
Hello "Old Man"!
I don't see this as a re-run of older Persian tactics. Facts are facts and the stark fact is that Alexander had repatriated some 10,000 phalanx infantry with no replacements within cooee. Fact is there were no replacements as the Lamian War would very shortly showcase.
Fact is what Alexander had - in over abundance - were light armed Asiatics; some twenty or more thousand of them in fact. Now, were he to use these in a revival of the Persian "phalanx" there is little need for sixteen ranks - he might as well have utilised a force ten deep. Funnily enough he did not, instead attempting to replicate a Macedonian formation sixteen deep. Interesting that eh?
His phalanx infantry - aside from those few (comparably) Macedonians he kept (8,000 or so) - would be those in whom he'd invested training: the Epigoni. Until, of course, national troops arrived.... whenever. Not that his national troops were so central to his purpose anymore.
Xenophon wrote:As to why Alexander toyed with this 'old' Persian formation, it may be because of manpower shortages as suggested, thus he was forced to use native troops in a manner they understood, but that seems doubtful to me. He could have easily armed these 'native troops' with 'sarissas', told them to follow their Macedonian file leaders, and had a Macedonian style phalanx drilled in a couple of weeks at most.
Unlikely. One wonders why he invested so much time and energy in training the Epigoni if everything was so supermarket simple. Why have trainers spend up to four / five years training Asian troops to Macedonian performance standards when such might be picked up and drilled in a "couple of weeks"?
Most unlikely.
Xenophon wrote:On the other hand, if he was secretly planning an invasion of the steppes as his next conquest, then such a formation makes perfect sense, since heavy infantry, armed with only hand-to-hand weapons are very vulnerable to horse archers, whether Macedonian 'sarissaphoroi' or Roman 'legionaries', as your reference to poor Crassus and his army demonstrates.....
There is - aside from one grandee from the Caucuses thinking the lad was gullible enough – no evidence for this. Prior to his death Alexander was training naval forces for a campaign. In the west, at Cyinda, he stocked the treasury of Cyinda with enough money to finance the Diadoch wars until at least 301. He’d also sent Craterus with orders to see to the armaments being assembled in the area for a campaign that was clearly directed to the west and just as clearly reliant on a large naval force. Indeed it is the part completed naval force that supplies the Diadochoi in the years immediately following his death.
He had, to my mind, as much interest in some phantom “Steppes” campaign as handing over the kingship to Demosthenes. Indeed his actions with respect to India indicate he’d lost interest there as well.
Alexander had already dealt with “steppe” horse archers in the northeast prior to the Indian campaign. I don’t think they necessarily taxed him to the extent that he felt the need to invent a faux-phalanx, matching his Macedonian phalanx, simply with them in mind.
Go west young conqueror…. after, of course, belting those sacrilegious Arabs yet to acknowledge your godhead.